-When the idea of this project was growing, did you imagine it the way it is today?

We seriously thought that it was going to be a never ending winter night. It took us 8 months to find the right harmonies, to find the exact sound that we were looking for, and the thing is : the more we were searching, the more we were demanding on our sound. We needed to have every member satisfied and proud of our EP before releasing it.
While we were focused on this process, Nicolas had the idea of composing and recording a track all together in only 3 days. That’s how « Sailing a Ship on the Ground » came out. This little challenge brought a breath of fresh air and it helped us to take a step back and look at the overall picture. That’s how we finished « Rwenzori ».

- How do you justify/explain the difference of style between your live performance in the church and your brand new EP?

A RAINMAKER saw the light in august 2011 and we felt the urge to play a lot together. At that time we had very few equipment, and it was mostly acoustic. The whole project had a strong folk feeling, and kept this direction when Gersende, our cellist, joined the band. We were listening to a lot of Fleet Foxes, Patrick Watson (the Wooden Arms album), Iron and Wine, Scott Matthews, and you could really feel it in our music. For our first EP « Rwenzori » we wanted to avoid being limited by our instruments to be able to get the sound that we were all looking for. That’s how we came to the « production side » with a strong interest towards vintage synths, a more electronic sound and the ability to create everything that we ever wanted from a sequencer and some VST. We recorded the whole EP in our own Home Studio, which brings the mix between the analogic, acoustic and « virtual » sound that we have now. The release of « Wolfgang Amadeus » by Phoenix blew our faces off. We liked everything about this album and it influenced us at some point in the direction that we were heading at first: getting something more rythmic. We added electronic elements to our live set, and it became a very natural thing.

- Which song are you most proud of on the EP?

We can’t really answer this question… We are all very proud of every track but « And the Sun goes down » and « Anchor » took us a lot of time concerning the composition.

- What could have been done differently?

We could have make a dozen of different things but we chose to keep the original feel of having a “autprod” EP. We were bound to use our own materials and techniques anyway, but we were always looking forward to find the best options and sounds that we could use. There is also a “tradition” that goes along with the whole French Touch scene where you can see people like Daft Punk & Phoenix starting to make their first records in their own bedroom. We wanted to keep this process while having the best sound possible.

- Now that the EP is out, what’s your next move?

We are definitely looking to get the best out of our live performance, we are still working a lot on our sound and we need to get better equipments. We have a lot of things going on; we are working on our live set for the upcoming gigs (june 25th @ International, july 5th @ Gibus Café, july 6th @ Débrouï-art, september 27th @ Bus Palladium), we will be shooting a live vidéo with « Bruxelles ma Belle » and « Les Accords Dehors ». Our track « Anchor » will be the official music for the upcoming ad of Spotify France and we are already working on our next EP.

- If you had to do an openning show of an artist or a band that you could choose, who whould you pick?
Pink Floyd, for their live at Pompeii.

photo credits : Michael Bourjac.

A to Z naked bodies by Anastasia Mastrakouli

Is it me or getting women naked is the new trend!?

In just few weeks, every time I watched a video, someone walked in and looked at me in a creepy way wondering why there is always a naked woman on my screen. Well my friend, this is the new trend! YouTube is going crazy, banning every nipples they see and Vimeo could not be happier to get more users.

To be honest I don’t really see the point in Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell’s video, the women are beautiful but they look dumb and men are being all dressed up with sunglasses in a studio, seriously WTF? In FOALS [bad habit] everything is subtile and soft, the desert brings a real beauty to this chased naked woman. In GESAFFELSTEIN – PURSUIT the video is simply amazing and YouTube have been gentle with this one so go watch it!

Well after all those naked bodies, I’m going to hit the gym and leave you with the following videos:

PARIS

Colors with Apero Tropical – Free entrance – 13 of june
Lots of hot & beautiful girls over there. A whole program with a colorful  photo call, Tie&dye and Nails salons, just everything to support and talk about the cool Nanas d’Paname project!
Facebook event

Movies with Cinema Paradiso – From 11.50€-20.50€ – 10-21 of june
Roller Girl is back! MK2 and Cinema Paradiso put together the biggest Drive-In! DO NOT bring your car over there, the whole Drive-In is a concept! You can enjoy movies, eating, play video games & clubbing with some rollers.
Tickets here
Facebook event

NEW YORK

Colors with Frogs at the American museum of Natural History – US$14.50-19.00 - May 18 – Jan 5
Blue, red, yellow, those froggies are just too cute but don’t be fooled some of them are poisonous, sneaky little ones…
American museum of Natural History website

Movies with Mad 46 & Bryant Park - Free - the whole summer
Enjoy free movies with friends, lovers, haters on a rooftop or in the garden barefoot, I’m just jealous of you right now!

Syfy Movies with a View at Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park Photo credit: Julienne Schaer

Go to NYC Go to find the whole NYC program for the Free Summer movies

SYDNEY

Colors with Blak – prices between Aus $29 – $89 – from 8-29 of june
It is not really colorful but if I say half-naked men, edgy production, artists’ urban perspective, Indigenous in Australia & dance. Do I really need to say more?
Opera House of Sydney website

Movies with Sydney Film Festival – Free and depending on the venue – from 6-16 of june
World’s longest-running film festival you can enjoy international movies, documentaries and short films. Fancy a meeting with the film industry professionals? Check conferences program at the Apple Store!
More info here 

London

Colors with Alternative London Tour – Free – all year long
Either you live in London and you just want to discover the “alternative” side of your city or you are a tourist and you don’t want to get in that bus, no you don’t, we know you don’t, so just go meet the hot team of Alternative London Tour.
Alternative London Tour website

Movies with Rooftop Film Club – £12 – all year long
Woop Woop fresh food and drinks, burger or hot dog freshly prepared and grilled on the outdoor coal fired barbecue and the ultimate movie experience on a rooftop, bring you ponchos just in case because with London we never know.
Rooftop Film Club website

Last week in Shanghai, No Man’s pop up art gallery has pitched up in an amazing 1000 m2 hangar with view across the Huangpu river. Welcome to New York. “The place has an underground spirit for people to feel good, but not too dirty to remain credible for the buyers ”.

After talking three minutes with Emmelie Koster, founder of the No Man’s gallery, the first sentence that comes up to you is: “Well, okay, I want to live her life”.
Since 2010, this Copenhagen girl has been traveling the world to organize fleeting and exclusive art exhibitions in the most exciting cities, leaded by a sole criterion: exhibit young artists from both the host country and abroad.

On Friday night, the launch party already attracted more than 800 people. We could meet tattoo artists, DJs and have exclusive goodie bags. A dozen of young artists from India, Denmark, China or France were showing their universe through painting, photographs and video art.
“We found them just a few months ago they just replied to our Facebook post” says Emmelie.
The power of networking is used to find a new working team in each place. That night, Luigi Auricchio, Neapolitan boy working in a French design company in Shanghai, was involved to organize the event.
On Tuesday, the gallery experienced its singularity event, “Art in the Dark”: a night to discover the exhibition plunged into the dark, with only a flashlight to guide you…

More pictures here

If you missed the Shanghai pop-up event, do not worry you will be able to see soon No Man’s Art gallery in New York and Cape Town! Go on No Man’s Art Website for more info.

Check No Man’s Art in Copenhagen

When was the last time you looked for an excuse to kiss that special someone!? Let’s go to the movies, see this art exhibit or get coffee. You just wait for the perfect opportunity to put your lips on his/her lips! Well, the right trick is coffee and Metro St James, a French café in Sydney just got it all figured out! Instead of taking money for their coffees, they’re only accepting kisses. You can just walk up to the café kiss your special someone and get free coffee. Forget all excuses and bring your date or partner to Metro Saint James.
If you are in Sydney, you have until the end of June to go!

Bisou Bisou

Free coffee from 9-11am
110 Elizabeth St, Sydney (behind St James station)
Metrostjames.com.au
Facebook Metro-St-James

All eyes on Brazil focuses on travelling across Brazil during the 2014 soccer World Cup to capture the emotions and reactions from the local population. Experienced young team, great project, and seeing behind the scene of this huge political/social event: I cannot wait to see more!
Their goal: Let you see the ‘real Brazil’ threw local eyes and emotions.
Liked what you saw ? Help here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1843212965/all-eyes-on-brazil
–

© Header photo: Wediawix

It’s 7 PM, we are arriving at the entrance of GOOD GOD small club in Chinatown. A magnificent breast cake wishing Vice a happy birthday is awaiting for us. The place is looking good and a bit kitsch. A projector is showcasing 10 successful years of Vice’s most impressive, dirty, weird, fun, random, sexy topics.
Aguila in one hand, we try to sit somewhere but tables are full of a surprising crowd for Sydney’s night scene. We look around : Long hair, beard, sweat, grease and beer smells are surrounding us : Wrangler announced the line up and Good God’s danceteria is now open for the concert.
We enter the smokey den, spot a table and sit, going back and forth to the bar, the first concert finally begins. The drummer is amazing, we talk about him and the only instrument we played in our youth: the triangle (A beautiful instrument played in Star Wars intro music (thank you Nick)). We talk, drink, talk, Flatbush Zombie has finally arrived: We vanished with the crowd on fire.

Thank you Vice  for this memorable party, I felt like I was ten again.

Vice.com
Best Vice articles of the decade
www.flatbushzombies.com

Eliya has recently returned from a year long travel in the USA while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. She worked for renowned photographer Ryan McGinley in NYC!
She returned to Australia with fresh ideas and inspirations, and decided to collaborated with close friend, Lisa Twomey, (Lisa T). The match of those two artists is perfect and they surely have some more projects coming up. Stay tuned.You will probably hear more about Eliya since I definitely want her to do something with us!

Let’s talk about the talented designer Lisa Twoney. Lisa T is a Sydney based artist and fashion designer. Her designs are full of dreamy graphics and fabrics. As an artist, she began with brushes and discovered herself a talent for the sewing machine. With an artistic mind and designer hands, her collection is a great combination of colours and patterns for a wild/bohemian look. Her inspirations vary from Iggy Pop to Dumbledore, (I would surely drop the name of Game of Thrones here), or whatever she’s feeling at the time.
She was part of the famous Canberra’s Fashfest this year and Fashion Guru Susie Lau alias Susie Bubble is wearing her brand. So, what are you waiting for to get Lisa T-rendy’s pieces of clothing?

lisatwomey.blogspot.com.au
Lisa T on Facebook

Photo credit
© Eliya Nikki Cohen
© Matt Salomon
© Susie Lau

Hello Maxime and Clara, thank you so much for this interview! Your first single Absolute Zero just came out and we discovered your band: Hologram. What does it mean to you?
Maxime: It’s both of a great joy and a relief. We’ve been working on this project on our own for almost a year, and recording everything at my apartment without almost anybody knowing about it.
Now it’s out, and we’ve been really amazed and surprised by all the positive reaction we’ve had so fast. Also the joy of just being able to share with others,and for free what we did is just fantastic.

You both have a past in music, Maxime on your own and with your sister Soko; and Clara with La Femme. How did you two meet and decided to do something together?
Clara: Maxime knew my cousin and she kept telling me that i had to meet him. When we finally met each other we instantly understood that we were made to create together. We are very complementary in the sense that he understands any rough idea I can have, and knows how to make the best out of it. He always seems to have a global vision and know where we’re going even when I don’t!
M: I met Clara when I was touring in Europe with my sister, and staying in Paris. At the time I was a little tired of collaborating, and wanted to focus on my own music. I changed my mind the second we sat together played. The fact that she’ve never had a musical training gives her a touching spontaneity, and an approach of music I’ve never heard before. It’s always inspiring and pushes me to create the best music possible.

Dreamy pop is definitely coming to us when we listen to ground zero, mixing both soft/whispering voices and electronic notes, why did you choose this type of music?
C: We really like the think of music as a mood, more than sounds. Putting people in a dream like state is really what we’re looking for…Glad it worked on you!

A hologram is a perspective viewed from different angles, is that the case for your music?
M: Indeed. We love mixing different type of sounds/influences, to avoid being stuck in one genera. When I was recording the EP,I was always looking for ways to create contrasts: mixing acoustic with electronic, soft/spacey sounds with with cold and darker ones,major and minor, and even creating contrast by the use of our 2 voices simultaneously.

With “Absolute Zero”, we have a feeling of an apocalyptic end; I thought we were done with the end of the world, any predictions from planet Hologram?
M: It was more like a observation of the damages done by human kind on both the planet and themself. The message was more about responsibility: you are responsible for your acts, and for your future. We act like if our behavior won’t have any impact because we won’t be here to see things in the long run, but everything we do today is shaping the world of tomorrow.

We have a strange feeling of going back in time and look into the future with your lyrics, style or your choice of video, is it done on purpose?
C: Indeed! We are very inspired by the whole retro-futuristic aesthetic. We both are big fans of Barbarella for instance and I’ve always been fascinated by space age designs and vintage urban utopias projects as Niemeyer’s Brasilia for example.
M: The idea that people had of the future back on those days is really captivating, the way they imagine the year 2000 for example as a whole new era. We’re in 2013 and the perspective, I don’t think we really succeed in making our reality as good as there what they envisioned!

National Congress of Brazil, Brasilia via Fuckyeahbrutalism

We can’t wait to hear/see more, how is your EP going to be?
M: Our EP is finally done now, ready to be released. Their will be 4 songs total,including absolute zero, that’s all we can say!
C: We’re looking at the future now and already working on our debut LP.

Did you collaborate with other artists for this EP?
C: No, it was more of an intimate hui clos.We were really disconnected from the outside world all this time and focused on creating something that sounds like the both of us.

You are both French; do you plan on singing in French for one of you songs?
M: Maybe one on the LP, to pay homage to our mother language.Clara is more at ease with French than I am!

Your appearance in your video is very brief, why is that?
C: We made this video to serve the song and I illustrate the lyrics.We didn’t see what we’ll be adding in the video by putting more images of us. Don’t worry you’ll see more of us in our next one that’ll we put out next month!

© Paul R. Mouginot

Are you still working on different projects or only dedicating yourself to Hologram?
C: It’s our main focus at the moment, but we are both hyperactives. We are lucky to be constantly surrounded by musicians and creative people so until we have enough time to do all our projects simultaneously, we’ll do it!

What’s for the future? Tonight? Tomorrow? In one year?
M: Tonight: Finishing this interview. Going bowling whilst drinking White Russian. Tomorrow: Write more songs, make more videos.
C: In a year: We’re thinking about moving to an other planet, we’ll let you know

A message for humanity ?
M: There may be more beautiful times, but this one is ours…
C: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!

Hologram on Facebook

Hologram on Bandcamp

The Local Natives entered the land down under for the first time in years seducing Sydney with hypnotic, addictive melodies that will leave Australia crying for more than just three shows.

The stage at the Metro Theater filled with smoke and the room hushed into melodic applause. Five men walked on stage with a purposeful march towards their instruments, taking their position like guards at their post. Without drama, the first notes of “You and I” hit the air and Kelsey Ayers voice erupted from the stage.

Kelsey Ayers voice is strong and encompassing as he belts out the first song on their second album Hummingbird. The song’s pensive lyrics reveal the darkness that lurches beneath their sophomore album. Hummingbird is precariously perched between the lighter rhythmic melodies of Gorilla Manor and a deeper despondency.

Seamlessly weaving from “You and I” to “Breakers,” four figures stand silhouetted against a curtain of red fog with their drummer, Matt Frazier, just a memory in the background. The crowd swayed in complete hypnosis. Each set of ooh’s rolled out from the stage with the harmonic precision of a barbershop quartet, amplified further by the hook’s layered instrumentals.

“Wide Eyes” awakened us into a more classic rock concert scene, white lights flooded out from behind figures with printed button ups. The nostalgia of this song was palpable in the crowd as everyone mouthed the words in unison. The band broke out of their instrumental posts, with Taylor Rice hunched over his guitar with seizure-like intensity.

Throughout the concert, band members switch instruments and vocal roles but remain passionately on point. Their live performance breathes complexity and haunting beauty into the depths of their newest album, while their first album remains a crowd pleaser. Their set mixes songs from both albums as well as a brilliant cover of “Warning Signs” by the Talking Heads.

Ending the set with Sun Hands, the song’s build up never ceases to inspire a cathartic state of elation. As they abandon their instruments and yelled through the chorus, the crowd lifted up and pulsed in unison with the band. The night ended with an encore performance of “Shape-Shifter,” soothing the crowd into the close of a phenomenal show.

This is a band you must see live and if you are in Australia, you have one more chance but you better move quick. North Americans, fall tour tickets are now on sale http://bit.ly/LNtickets

Listen to the entire album

Go on thelocalnatives.com
Buy on iTunes
Stalk on Instagramm

Photos: © Bryan Sheffield